After a disappointing start to the year property sales in Cyprus surged in March, 12 months after the country went into lockdown according to official figures released today by the Department of Lands and Surveys.
During March, the total number of contracts deposited at Land Registry offices for the sale of residential property, commercial property, building plots and land reached 826; a rise of 62 per cent compared to the same month last year.
As you will see from the chart below sales during March rose in all districts and, at the end of the first quarter of 2021, they were almost back to where they were a year ago.
As Pavlos Loizou noted in his article, the Department of Lands and Surveys was in lockdown during the first three weeks of January and the Department was understaffed. As the restrictions have eased, more staff have returned to their offices and caught up with their work.
According to the Kritonas Onisiforou, who heads up the BidX1 operation in Cyprus, Cypriots looking to buy a home encouraged by the government’s incentives, such as the interest subsidy scheme. Speaking to the Financial Mirror Mr Onisiforou said:
“Housing interest rates are also at an all-time low, going from more than 8% a few years ago to around 2.5%.
“We carried out a survey in March that showed 85% of people asked said that they plan to buy a property within the next six months.
“The crisis has affected people’s ability to buy, but there is a significant number of people who have survived the crisis, coming out unscathed with money available to buy, or are credit-worthy.”
